I had taken a break from the group for a little while, and I see that
I've missed a lot.  I will never, never catch up, but have been
reading and cheering on Annie's daughter, enjoying Jeanne's Best
Friends adventure, and admiring the beauteous Kenzie and the cuties
Eenie, Meanie, Minnie and Moe.  And I have loads more posts to go!

Mike had an appointment with TED on Thursday, following up on a UTI
after he'd finished a round of antibiotics.  He *still* has the UTI,
and we are now on a different antibiotic.  He's now getting 6 syringes
of meds per day squirted down his throat, poor baby.

Mike has never gained back any of the weight he lost before his
hyperthyroidism was diagnosed appx. 6 months ago, and I thought he'd
lost a bit more in the last few weeks.  I was shocked at just how much
he *had* lost, though - he's down to 5.5 pounds.  The last time we'd
been to TED, about a month ago, he was a little over 7 pounds.  For
most of his life he was 10 to 10.5 pounds or so, though it had been
slowly dropping over the last couple of years.  So we are on a feeding
Mike binge around here, naturally.  TED said he was afraid that if we
abandoned the UR food Mike might get blocked, so we have switched from
semi-moist to wet UR food in various flavors.  Mike likes it, and
likes to eat it out of my hand.  Ewwww.  Of course, being a good slave
and worried mom, every couple of hours I am kneeling in front of the
cat with a handful of stinky wet food.

Mike had a really terrible time at TED Thursday, poor little darling.
Among other indignities, they drew what looked like at least 10
gallons of blood for various tests, tried *unsuccessfully* to aspirate
a urine sample by sticking a needle in his bladder, and gave him IV
fluids.  TED says he's worried about Mike's kidney function, though he
called me Thursday night after the initial bloodwork (he has to send
it off for most of the tests) and said it's *not* CRF.  That was good
news; I don't know what it *is* though, just what it's not.

After all the atrocities, Mike had had ***enough*** and signaled his
displeasure by biting completely through my thumbnail while he was on
the exam table.  This hurts a ridiculous amount - completely out of
proportion to the little puncture in my nail.  He still hasn't
forgiven me for all this, either.  He is still carefully postioning
himself to face away from me at all times.  All his life, whatever he
may have been mad *about*, he gets mad *at* me.  ;-)

We took in a urine sample Friday morning, and went back Friday
afternoon for antibiotics and more IV fluids, and will probably go
again for fluids tomorrow when the tech is there feeding all the
boarders.  He seemed okay today when we pinched the skin up to check
his hydration, so we decided to give him a break from TED for today.
My poor Mike's having a tough time with all this.

The situation sort of paradoxical, as we're getting alarming news from
TED when just lately he's seemed to feel a little better, like he'd
shaken off his depression a little.  He's hardly his old self, but
he'd been more interested in what's going on around him, looking out
the windows and chasing the odd moth, rather than just meatloafing on
the couch all day.  He's still pouting now from TED Thursday and
Friday and from having to take all these meds, and the pouting will
most likely last for several days before I can get any kind of real
idea about how he feels.

I'm sorry this update wasn't more cheerful, but I must say it's good
to be back.

------
Krista